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Master thesis: Regional differences in recruitment, mortality and growth of pioneer trees in the treeline ecotone

Several factors are affecting the dynamics in the treeline ecotone. Both climate, herbivory and changed landuse affect recruitment, mortality and growth in this trasition zone between forest and alpine areas. In addition to that it can be challenging to quantify the effect of each factor, several local factors are in play, such as ground vegetation, micro topography, aspect etc. This master thesis uses multi-temporal observations of trees in the treeline ecotone of 35 sites distributed along a more than 1000 km latitude gradient, to analyze regional differences in recruitment, mortallity and growth. The thesis includes analyses of the effets of climate and herbivory on the changes in the treeline ecotone. The thesis is a part of the project ForestPotential.